All posts in category Activ

Having been a professional software developer for around 25 years I recently struck out on my own and started a small web design company. As a fairly new start-up I have been fortunate in that the local council run some extremely good free workshops to support new business.

In the last 4 months I must have attended 7 or 8 of these workshops ranging from how to write a business plan to the most recent on website SEO, I must point out that so far every single workshop has been well worth attending and I have learned a lot, however, on 2 of the workshops I have come away feeling like I am the local tax inspector come to check the accounts.

The first was a business workshop and didn’t have anything to do with websites but during and after the workshop the presenter made a valid point that no one these days has to pay for a website there are plenty of “free” websites available in the form of templates, free sites when purchasing hosting and free websites with adverts, however, over and over he stressed that web designers simply want to charge for something that anyone with a little knowledge could well do themselves at little or no cost, and to be honest he is right to a point any fool can drag and drop a fairly reasonable site together. The second workshop presenter was teaching SEO and what could be done by the average site owner who has access to the CMS it was a worthwhile extremely informative workshop and I learned a lot then we got into the “Why pay some guy to do what you could easily do given time” discussion and once again I fully agree, there is no way I can hide it in fact I wouldn’t try. I charge for websites and SEO both of which a business could do themselves certainly cheaper and possibly at no cost other than time and effort.

Now to the reason for the rant and the reasons I charge for my time and effort:-

Why I feel I add value to a small business are as follows:-

Most people are capable of dragging and dropping a website together but to be honest I make a better job of it.

Most business owners are too busy doing what they do best to build their business and simply don’t have time to build a website or perform SEO – This is where I spend the long hours on doing what I do

What sort of an image does a new company trying to build a reputation and build trust give to other businesses when the site has “provided free by SkiddlyDo” at the foot of the site and adverts for hemorrhoid cream popping up over what I am trying to read

How many businesses will cobble a free site together, make a reasonable job of it then not touch it again for 5 years complaining all the time that it does nothing for the business and doesn’t get any visitors.

What finally added the icing to the cake was a “Networker” I bumped into at a local meeting, we were sat doing the obligatory one-to-one, I told him I was a web designer, did SEO social media and other internet related stuff to which he replied “why would anyone pay you to do that it’s all free” so I explained that I could possibly make a better job of it and at worst I could free the business owner up so that they could concentrate on their business, “what do you do?” I asked “I am a life coach, I speak to people and make them feel better as well as telling them all what they are doing wrong with their life and helping them” mmm, “and do you get paid for that?” I asked unfortunately I didn’t hear the reply he got up and wandered off not sure but I don’t see him having any future one-to-one sessions with me.

Just a few examples I could buy the parts from a local shop and replace the brakes on my car but I choose not to because the mechanic is far better at it than me, I could pull my own teeth but I prefer the dentist to do it I am a bit squeamish that way, I can advise myself on how to invest what little money I have, I could build my own house, garage or extension I might even get some wire and make myself an electric blanket for winter but I choose not to the point I am trying to make is that all things can be cheaper or sometimes free, I can’t think of a single business that with time, effort or trial and error I couldn’t do myself if I really wanted to or had the time to do so but I choose not to, why, because if its not my area of expertise there is probably someone who would make a better job of it.

And as a final footnote the “Why would you pay someone to do SEO? ” workshop presenter who I might add was extremely good and certainly knew his stuff and to top it all seemed a really nice guy he runs a large and very successful Web Design and SEO company when he isn’t teaching.

If you would like any help or advice with your web presence or would like more information on cloud contact us.

How many internet enabled devices do you own?, definitely a Smartphone, maybe a tablet add to that a PC or laptop now try and imagine your life without at least one of these devices. We rely heavily on these devices to remind us of birthdays and appointments, checking the weather, or sending and receiving messages and in the case of phones even phone calls, we would be lost without them.

In daily life how many times have you sat in a restaurant or coffee shop and seen someone tapping away on their phone at the table or on the beach in the office or the supermarket the list is endless it seems we just can’t survive without being connected.

Now, what if you are a business owner with a mobile app, this puts you in direct contact with these potential customers 24/7 and 97% of messages will be read as opposed to 30% of emails for some reason a message delivered to one of these devices not only has to be read, it is normally read immediately.A business mobile app is a fantastic “branding tool” which is used for keeping your clients aware of your services or your products whilst increasing the level of customer loyalty.

As an example take the Starbucks coffee chain, the company launched a mobile app back in 2011, they included a rewards system called “My Starbucks Reward”, the account allowed customers to top up with money and make purchases, the user was then awarded stars that he or she could later exchange for more Starbucks products.

The program proved to be highly successful and more important profitable for Starbucks, so much so that today every 10th purchase for a Starbucks product is made via a mobile device.

The Starbucks example shows that a mobile app serves the purpose of keeping clients loyal and bringing them back time and time again to your business.

The app of course, should not only create more business for you but should also be “user friendly” and add value for the user, if it doesn’t add value or is difficult or time consuming to use the user simply won’t download it or if they do they will soon remove it.

As a minimum, the application should serve at least the following purposes:

Fulfill a need for the user

Make it easy for the user to access your products or services

Offer a reward or benefit for their loyalty in turn creating a desire to use the service again

The second point is probably the most important as users are already used to the convenience and ease of using mobile technologies. quite simply if a user has to jump through hoops to buy your products and doesn’t get a discount or reward after all that, he or she will go elsewhere and probably not return.

If you would like any help or advice with your web presence or would like more information on cloud contact us.

Whether you have seen a mobile app for another business or you have read about them I hope to help with reasons why a mobile app would be good for your business, club or school.

What can an app do for my business?

An app helps build brand loyalty, all business owners desire brand loyalty. With a mobile app your business can stay in direct contact with your clients or members. You can stay engaged with customers and keep them informed about your business activities, events and special offers, or in the case of schools inform parents of events, school closures or information regarding their child.

A mobile app allows you to present information, services and products to your customers through a medium that people use and have with them constantly, this provides your business with an excellent affordable tool to inform and market to your customer base at any time.

A mobile app provides you with a ready revenue stream allowing your business to reach an audience that you normally wouldn’t reach through other means of marketing (97% of messages are read), people are always searching for the easiest and fastest way to get the information, products and services they want.

Customers always have their phone with them, no matter what they are doing people are always fiddling with their phones or tapping away on a tablet, this means that people can search, buy, browse or share at any time of the day or night regardless of where they are or what they are doing, with an app your business will always be available to them.

An app will keep you ahead of the competition, whilst your competitors may not have an app at this time, you could, here at Activ we have made developing and launching an app more affordable allowing you to reap the benefits with a sensible ROI, allowing you to engage with customers, build brand loyalty and be on the cutting edge of technology.

Why wait, your customers are using mobile devices everyday browsing for products, services, booking appointments, purchasing goods and much much more, how many people these days book a hotel or visit a restaurant without first reading the reviews, looking at on-line maps to see where it is, what the parking is like or what’s on the menu?. For the price of a couple of adverts you could have the latest technology advertising only your business.

If you would like any help or advice with your web presence or would like more information on cloud contact us.

What Kind of person makes a successful entrepreneurIf you take a cross section of successful entrepreneurs you will see certain characteristics they have in common, whilst not a guarantee to success it is worth asking yourself if you have any of these attributes.

A strong desire to work for themselves and do things their way

A history of making good decisions

An ability to see the whole picture of where the business is and where it needs to be

A high energy level for the inevitable long hours

A thorough knowledge of the area that the business is positioned in

Ability to persevere when things become more challenging

Whilst it is not essential to tick all the boxes straight away, more crosses than ticks would certainly highlight a cause for concern; however, it may be that further training or investigation would go some way to turning crosses into ticks.

Should I have a business plan?A business plan is necessary because it not only summarises both your vision of the future but gives a roadmap to follow towards ensuring your success.

The plan should include (but not limited to) initial start-up details, future direction, who is who, and projected profit and loss, cash flows and assets, the plan should include as a minimum:

A table of contents

A page identifying the company

An ‘Executive Page’ giving an overview of who you are, where you are and where you intend to be.

The background of where you and the business came from and skills possessed.

A Marketing plan summarising how you will promote your business and products

Financial forecasts and statements showing expected performance

How do I estimate start-up costs and expenses?You need to know up front what your start-up expenses are going to be, without that information you have no way of knowing how much capital you need to get the business off the ground and running even if you are intending to be self financing you need to know whether you are going to hit cash flow problems. You need to find the costs of business premises (unless you are working from home) , rent, rates, telephones etc.

Analysis of Monthly Cash Flow.Your projected financial figures may differ substantially from ‘Actual’ income, ongoing analysis will highlight whether you are accumulating enough cash to cover operating expenses as well as showing hopefully when there is an excess of cash to make purchases or expand your operation.

The Competition.All businesses have competition, it is vital that you know who your competition are their prime concern is to get the business that you are now hoping to get, analyse how they get their business, their products their ‘uniqueness’ (the reason the customers chose them in the first place) their prices, their strengths and weaknesses.

If you would like any help or advice with your web presence or would like more information on cloud contact us.

At CodeSpinner we have over 25 years experience of producing custom software.

The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the internet. Cloud computing is a general term for anything which involves delivered hosted services over the internet.

In broad terms a cloud service has three characteristics which differentiate it from traditional hosting, these are;

It is provided on demand (by the minute or hour in some cases)

It is scalable (a user can have as little or as much as they want)

the service is fully managed by the vendor (you typically only require a computer and internet access)

Cloud computing promises to speed application deployment and lower costs, whilst increasing business agility. It has transformed the way we design, build and deliver applications to the users. Have you used a search engine today?, have you accessed web mail if so you are already using cloud services.

There are public clouds, private clouds and hybrid clouds but don’t let the jargon put you off, everyone agrees that cloud computing is the key to the future of I.T but lots of these people are unsure of what it is. Many companies are jumping on the bandwagon to offer “cloud services” so it is worth understanding such terms as SaaS (software as a service) or PaaS (platform as a service) or IaaS (infrastructure as a service) to name a few if you need to evaluate a suppliers claims.

Cloud computing has some real benefits but also has risks such as loss of services if your provider has downtime or worse still goes out of business also regulatory concerns over data security so choose your vendor carefully.

I recently setup a really simple system for a plumber who lives down the street; he already had an iPhone, an Apple Mac and an iPad although in his words he wasn’t really sure what to do with them. During our conversation he mentioned that his wife mans the phone at home and jots down all of his incoming appointments then rings him at regular intervals to give him the new list, if the call is urgent she tries to call him straight away, within 10 minutes we had connected his Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad calendar applications up to iCloud (he was familiar with the calendar app anyway), now when his wife enters the call details into a time slot on the calendar app on the Mac the appointment appears on his iPhone and iPad almost instantly and any Urgent appointments are highlighted in red, he now knows exactly when and where he should be, what the problem is before he gets there, the address and customer name and contact details and it cost him nothing as he already had the technology simple, but had this come up a year or two ago it would have been a little more difficult and a lot more expensive to achieve, it’s certainly not the best solution to his problem but it works for him and cost him nothing.

The reason for the anecdote above is to show that the “Cloud” isn’t frightening or intimidating, it’s not the answer to everything but in certain cases it does exactly what it says on the tin.

To conclude, here are a few more terms you may want to research if you want to know more, it is a fascinating subject.

A “squeeze page” is a single page and its sole purpose is to either capture the visitors email address (in return for your free giveaway) or in some cases, to make a sale, but by far the main reason is to capture the visitors email address.

When building a business, a highly-effective squeeze page is essential for daily lead capture because without those leads network marketers don’t have a business!

Design an effective squeeze page.

“Who do you want” – One of the more important steps, yet time and again people charge straight in without a clear understanding of exactly the type of person they want on their email list yet without this vital step how are you going to develop a campaign good enough to create interest and gain trust.

Take the time to work out exactly who you are trying to attract on to your list in terms of your ultimate goals. Then and only then will you know how best to write the copy.

Your squeeze page has one goal to get people to sign up to your email list; every word on the page should support that single action. If it doesn’t, lose it.

Things to Avoid

Remove anything distracting the user from signing up that includes things like the sidebar, links, navigation menu, non essential text, links and images this page should have one purpose only “sign them up”

Benefits: You’ve got to tell by teasing, usually with fascinating bullet points.

Call to Action: You’ve got to expressly tell people to sign-up.

Opt-in form: You’ve got to have a way for them to sign-up.

Build Trust: Add a photo or signature, privacy disclaimer, testimonials anything to show that you are trustworthy.

The Gift.

This could be a free report, eBook, or piece of software, news feed or any other freebie.

You will always get subscribers who take your incentive with an alternate “specially for spam” email address, or simply unsubscribe immediately, it is your job to keep them subscribed, you could for instance offer to drip feed them reports over time, break the eBook into parts or give early news on what’s coming next.

The key is to make people aware that you’re giving more than you’re taking.

Keep the page focused and concise, obviously the essentials have to be there, the headline, benefits, call to action and obviously the opt-in-form but also reassure the user that you will respect their privacy there is nothing worse than signing up for something useful then finding your details have been passed on to all and sundry.

How much information do you really need?

The less you ask for the more likely they are to sign up, you only need the email address, if you want more trial more but in our tests the email only option performed far better, however, if your business needs a mailing address, or other personal details consider getting them on board first then build up your contact details. The more trust you build; the more people open up to you.

Don’t Forget to Monitor and Test!

Every business is different the only way to find exactly what works for you and your potential audiences to do your own testing. Even changing a single sentence or word can make a difference good or bad so monitor.

If you would like any help or advice with your web presence contact us.

At CodeSpinner we have over 25 years experience of producing custom software.

This is an introduction to creating an effective email marketing campaign for your business, subsequent posts will offer advice on building squeeze pages, creating a campaign and tips and tricks to help make it effective.

Even with the advent of social media, smart phones, and tablets, email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of marketing online and that isn’t expected to change anytime soon, so it would be a shame to pass-up email marketing as a possible revenue source for your business.

The mailing list is king, collect as many email addresses from customers or potential customers as you can and once you have them keep them, let’s face it, people are not going to join your mailing list without a good reason, these days people are more suspicious and reluctant to give out any personal data and that includes their email address so for them to give it to a total stranger would be going against what they think is the safe choice, if you want them to persuade them to do that then you have to offer them a worthwhile incentive.

The best way to do that is to give them something for free, we all like to get something for nothing eBooks work well, short reports also work well, even free software (make sure it’s yours to give away).

Building Your List

The first thing you need is a mailing list and, if the list is large enough, an automated bulk mailing system. There are plenty of third-party services that can do this for you, today’s services offer a lot more than just managing your email.

Most services offer a free option often limited to a certain number of subscribers or number of times in a set period you can use the service, this can range anywhere from 50 subscribers to 100 emails a month depending on their terms and conditions but you will not get all of the bells and whistles of the “paid for service”.

If you are just starting out it is worth building your list until you reach your free limit, and then upgrading to a paid plan as it could take a little while to build up your list an you could end up with a paid-for-service that you are simply not ready for, the free service will also allow you to do some early trials and gain valuable experience at no cost.

Starting Your Campaign

Now that you have your list you need a place to put your web form or squeeze page (also known as the opt-in form) so you can collect email addresses they are called squeeze pages because the only objective on the page is to get the user’s email address (my next post will tell you what is needed on a squeeze page and how to optimize it).

You have a few options for how you want to implement the squeeze page you can write a separate HTML page or you can download a template or simply use a page from within your blogging platform you may see a lot of people on the web refer to “landing” and “sales pages” as squeeze pages they are not the same thing there is a subtle difference.

Once you have setup your squeeze page wait until you have at least a month’s worth of messages in the queue ready to go out, why?, well, unless you keep in contact regularly, email addresses tend to go stale and inactive after a sustained period of no contact from you so once they join your list you ideally want them to be getting emails from you right away and on a regular basis.

Actually writing your email campaign series is considered by many to be a dark art but with a little bit of trial and error it is something that you can do quite effectively, email marketing is not new so there are plenty of articles, blogs and resources on the web I suggest you read them learn from others mistakes but be prepared for failures as well as successes.

Good luck!

If you do not feel confident tackling this on your own, lleave it to the experts!

At CodeSpinner we have over 25 years experience of producing custom software.

More and more often these days the first place potential guests look for holiday accommodation is online, various studies have shown that people trust search results when it comes to making a decision about a product or service, therefore a Hotel, Guest House or B&B with a solid online presence is more likely to attract consumers to their website than those which rely solely on traditional advertising.

As a Hotel, Guest House or B&B owner, there are a number of ways in which to engage with your consumers online, and drive them to your site and ultimately turn site visitors into bookings.

3rd Party “Booking Sites”
Whilst this is a cost effective way to get your business online quickly and some times free the costs compared to having your own site can be higher than they appear on first glance, unless you start paying a fee you ofetn have no idea (or control) over where your site appears when a potential customer starts looking typically the process is by area, then sorted by price, facilities or rating. there is also the booking fee (they are in business as well don’t forget), your business has to be “sold” in a fixed slot between all of the other competing businesses.

Social MediaSocial networks provide fantastic opportunities to make contact with customers, even if others in your industry are not, your customers are and that’s what counts.

This year Facebook reached the 500 million user mark, and on Twitter there are in excess of 100 milllion active users (Source: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo ), and as mobile Internet usage increases, these numbers are sure to increase.

Facebook and Twitter can be used to build online communities, building trust in product-consumer relationships and can be integrated with various other Marketing and SEO tactics, you can use social media to promote your business, pictures of your guest house and surrounding areas to entice potential customers, details of events, special offers, party bookings.

Make sure you can be found!
Search engines are often the first port of call for a potential customer who is looking for more information therefore, it is important to ensure that your webdesigner is doing his or her job and that your website is shown when someone conducts a search using keywords which are related to your product or service in your area.

Content is King
Hotels, Guest Houses and B&Bs have the opportunity to produce content which is both informative and promotional, you can write about local events, offers or travel tips – something which is of use to your customers and which will generate awareness of your business, use these opportunities to provide as much useful information as possible this will drive people to your site.

Whilst there are many things which can be done to increase your business presence on-line, it is usually a combination of tactics which produces the best results.

The beauty of online marketing lies in the fact that your efforts can be tracked and measured in real time, this will reasure you that you are focusing your efforts in the right places and spending your budget wisely and allow tweaking when necessary.

At CodeSpinner we have over 25 years experience of producing custom software.

Now is the time to start taking advantage of all the existing and emerging social media platforms currently available to you. Whether you are a business looking after your own social media campaigns, or a consultant working on behalf of a client, it important to get it right and this is where learning even the basics of copywriting skills will pay dividends.

Social media has been around for some time, initially these were great platforms to help build brand awareness and gain user interaction in fact they still are, however, in some instances they can be used to help drive traffic and improve conversion rates as well as playing a huge part in a business’s rankings with the many search engines.

Now is the time to start taking social media more seriously, whether it’s getting the basics right, or in understanding social media strategies, the following copywriting tips are worth remembering when using any media platform:

Spelling and Content

There is nothing worse than visiting a site that contains spelling mistakes or content that doesn’t read well, from a business perspective this will at best this makes the company look unprofessional and careless and at worst it can put a stop to any user interaction, rendering the whole process pointless.

Don’t beat about the bush

Whether you are writing a full page or trying to tweet a message in 140 characters or less, it is important that the message is to the point, any followers will simply lose interest if the message is “wordy” and not to the point, this doesn’t mean avoid having a personality it just means be clear and concise in what you are trying to convey.

Don’t lose the connection

Keep a clear connection between your brand image and social media personality it is an all too common mistake for many brands using social media, for example, a company may have the perception of being vibrant, new and exciting, but their social media activity may not reflect this, so write in a way that will enhance your brand image, whatever that may be.

Be creative!

It is important to focus on getting the user to click on a link, or to look at something you have shared, one way to do this is to be a little more creative with your posts or tweets, so instead of tweeting, “Here are some copywriting tips”, you could create more interest for example by saying, “For tips on improving your copywriting skills, follow this link”.

Make time!

It is all too easy to forget about updating social media content, especially if you are busy, however, every little helps, one way is to set yourself reminders to send out a tweet or update your status at various intervals during the day even if you can’t find time to post a full article.

Set aside some time to actually engage in online conversations with others, the more “active” you are the better this will be for your company’s exposure.

Most of all – Enjoy it!

The whole point of social media is to engage with others this is why it is important to enjoy the experience and not go for the hard sell which will put people off.

Potential customers or clients would rather take time to talk and engage with a company that is actively seeking their interaction rather than abruptly trying to push their products or services onto them.

Above all have fun! this will show in the way you write and the way other people perceive you or your business don’t see it as a chore but rather an integral and important part of online marketing.

At CodeSpinner we have over 25 years experience of producing custom software.

Deciding the business requirements when going bespoke can be quite difficult this is because software and business systems can become very complex and as a result there are lots of places where miscommunication and assumptions can occur.

So why is “going bespoke” any different, there are many other industries where a contracted individual creates something for a customer, building construction for instance; for example when you buy a home from a builder.

Usually the builder has various show homes that you can visit and look around, usually they have examples of all of the different options that you could purchase for your new home, and in any case people are generally familiar with houses, they know what to expect and they know what not to expect, so in reality when you purchase a home from a builder there are relatively few choices that you make and the choices that you do make as a customer are things that you are very familiar with.

In software development this would be similar to purchasing a software product that is already built and then modifying it. It’s a fairly low risk undertaking and you usually get the chance to try out a version of the actual software you are going to purchase.

When designing your own house there isn’t an example you can go visit, whilst a builder could point out certain features of other similar buildings that you could see, often you are left only with a set of plans or drawings of what the final structure will look like.

It can be hard for the customer to visualize what the finished structure is going to look like, ok you can look at the plans and see that a bedroom is going to be 10′ x 15′ but it is a little more difficult to really get a sense for what that room is going to feel like when you walk in or how the furniture will fit, how quiet it will be etc.

The same is true for bespoke software development. It can be quite difficult for non-technical customers to really be able to visualize the finished system and how it is going to work, and because they can’t really see the completed system in their mind, it can be very difficult for them to explain to the developer how it is supposed to work.

So what should you do? Here are some best practices that can be followed when developing a requirements document for bespoke software applications.

Draw a “model” on paper whenever you can, create examples of how you want your software to work give examples of major functional features so that you and your staff can “walk through” different screens and functions, get a better feel for how things might look and work.

Map out prototypes that walk through complex functionality and “use cases”

Create mock ups of key screens that show as much functionality as possible use something like Visio tm (Microsoft) or Pencil (http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx) which is a free open source tool but there are many more

Create annotated visual functional requirements documents. I have written a few functional requirements documents over the years and have found that if your requirements document is entirely text that describes every piece of the system, people will generally just nod their head and say yes to everything.

The truth is that no matter how eloquently you write and how painstakingly you describe your requirements, people by their very nature prefer things to be visual, they need to see it to really understand how it is going to work, where possible you should always add a diagram or flowchart.

Remember you are striving to improve the transfer of knowledge between yourself and the developer. The more the developer knows about your business the better they will understand the problems, the better they will be at describing the solution.

Bespoke software development can be quite challenging, however, with a little work you can make the knowledge transfer between you and developer much more efficient.

Alternatively, leave it to the professionals, get them to do the hard work whilst leaving you to “sanity-check” and simply approve the final requirements.

At CodeSpinner we have over 25 years experience of producing specifications and requirements.